Find an image from industry that has sparked controversy and discuss the reasons driving the response.
Activity 5.2: Photo essay ethics
Consider and prepare for the ethical considerations applicable to your photo essay shots.
Activity 5.1: Controversial image
AIDS Remembrance Float, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade, 1999. Photograph: Tony White/Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives (ALGA)
The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has always been controversial from it’s beginnings in 1978 on the Day of International Gay Solidarity, 24 June 1978. The Gay Solidarity Group, following a morning protest march and a public meeting. At 10pm that night, people began to assemble at Taylor Square, with the crowd surrounding a flatbed truck with a sound system playing Meg Christian’s Ode to a Gym Teacher and Tom Robinson’s Glad to be Gay as they set off down Oxford Street to Hyde Park. The picture above as featured in The Guardian newspaper was particularly concerned with AIDS remembrance with Paraders wearing nothing but Red Ribbons.
Activity 5.2: Photo essay ethics
Ethically with mine there will be nothing sexual even though it’s about sexuality essentially as my daughter is A) 13 almost 14 and B) it’s not exploitative it’s documenting her life.
We’ve gone over this extensively and discussed the images were both comfortable in crowd situations/street events and in studio also any shots in hospital will not feature faces of medical staff or include other patients for privacy and ethical reasons unless their parent/guardian consents and signs release, but i am not comfortable about featuring minors in hospital for any reason other than my own child who is on board with the project
Chose an essay structure that suits your story: narrative or thematic. List each step needed to create your story timeline: include topic generation, subject research, subject confirmation, shooting and editing time and presentation creation.
Prepare a basic storyboard (stick figures or phone photos) comprising of your 6 shots: Opening, Reveal, Establishing, Action, Environmental portrait and Closing.
Activity 4.1: Photo essay structure
I’m still struggling with thematic or narrative. Do I go with bright bouncy Pride or a more structured narrative that includes the story of my child including hospital days as well as exploring the fun side of coming out to the world in her pride flag cape.
I’m still going through shots at the moment and expanding my theme to include studio and pictures of her in her room and at hospital to give you a picture of my daugter and what Born This Way encompasses for her…shes not just a gay kid or a sick kid she’s a complex individual and I want to show her and let her story shine. These are some of the essential shots of the Pride side of her personality. This isn’t my final layout…I’m playing with ideas constantly but if I was pitching to something about gay youth then i would totally go with this layout about a young teens first LGTBQI Mardi Gras Festival in 2020. Even though I may not go with this I’m printing it for her to put up on her wall. Gotta love Adobe Spark!
Prepare a 12 week shoot timeline with practical and achievable weekly targets.
Week 1
collating images from Para pride event her first Pride fair day
Week 2
planning mardi gras images and event photography style
Week 3
going through 900 images looking for the ones that encapsulate her experiance from Mardi Gras and pride fair day
Week 4
interviewing friend who’s daughter also came out in the last few years who volunteered at Mardi Gras in Sydney
Week 5
1st studio shoot
Week 6
2nd Studio shoot
Week 7
editing and refining images
Week 8
culling images down to 15-25 images to tell our story
Week 9
redoing any images that i feel could tell our story better
Week 10
final edits and preparing for delivery to publication
Week 11
backing up all files
Week 12
presentation
Activity 3.2: Photo essay DAM structure
Prepare DAM workflow structure for the essay with practical steps you will follow from image capture, download, backup, renaming, rating, editing, metadata and output
The Digital Asset Management strategy for this overall assignment will be in line with my normal 3 tiered DAM management for storage of files, and will incorporate , 2-3 Cloud storage sites ( 2 iCloud addresses and Dropbox) and a seagate external drive, mac hard drive for local file processing as well as SD card archives.
My workflow begins with Pitch to Publication, capture via Nikon DSLR/iPhone x , upload/preview in Lightroom, edit in Photo shop if required, export of edited files to BORN THIS WAY folder, back up folder in 3 tier storage. Layout, Presentation to Client.
Activity 3.3: Model Release
Prepare a model release for use in your project. Use the AIPP Model Release form as an example to guide you in developing your own release form:
Find and share an aesthetic style example for your photo essay. What do you like about this style?
Activity 2.2: Photo essay subject research
Find and share a photo story from industry created on a subject similar to yours. Discuss the style/success of the approach used.
Activity 2.3: Process blog
Post the results from the above activities, along with a brief summary of what you’ve learned and any challenges you faced in Module 2: How to find and build a story, on your process blog. When completed, post a link to your blog on the Discussion Forum on the Blackboard LMS portal.
Activity 2.1: Photo essay aesthetic
I’ve been trawling the web for layouts and ideas that appeal to me. I really liked some work i found on Pinterest called Finding Friendship https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/843299098961152628/ as pictured below, the asthetic appeals to me and relates in that it’s a child’s day/life and my photo essay is about my daughter. With this piece it’s about feeling lonely and wanting friends and joining into play the narrative is simple to understand in the flow of images in the layout.
Activity 2.2: Photo essay subject research
There’s a wealth of photo essays on pride and Gay family’s on the world wide web.
it’s quite interactive every time you click the arrow it takes you to a different plot point and opens a photo and then another captioned one, not the visual style i was going for but engaging none the less.
For this part of the exercise and just in my general research over the last few months I’ve fallen in love with this site:-
it’s a family aesthetic but geared very strongly towards Gay Dads. The kids are just adorable.
Activity 2.3: Reflections
There’s some brilliant work out there and i often find my self looking at pictures and not doing my work While I’m still attached to NAT GEO at this point I’m researching other online publications that may be interested in my essay.
After familiarising yourself with a range of photo essays from industry, write down 2 of your own photo essay ideas on you process blog. Provide feedback on your classmates’ thoughts on the discussion forum, which you can access via the link at the bottom of the page or in the left-hand navigation menu.
Activity 1.2: Photo essay story angle
Based on feedback from your classmates and lecturer, choose your most robust essay idea and develop a story angle by brainstorming the subtopics within your story idea.
Activity 1.3: Process blog
Post the results from the above activities, along with a brief reflection, on your process blog. Make sure to include thoughts on what you learned, along with the challenges you faced. When completed, post a link to your blog post on the Discussion Forum on the Blackboard LMS portal.
Activity 1.1: Photo Essay Ideas
Photoshoppeed edit of Glisten youth Pride Instagram Frame
As you can see from my image, my idea started forming Last October when my daughter announced she was Pan sexual. Being Bisexual myself it wasn’t a great revelation but I did need to research what Pan-sexuality was. This particular photo was taken in February on Mardi Gras Fair Day 2020 on Sydney.
Pansexuality is defined on Wikipedia as “Pansexuality, or omnisexuality, is the sexual, romantic or emotional attraction towards people regardless of their sex or gender identity. Pan sexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are not determining factors in their romantic or sexual attraction to others.”
My initial thought was National Geographic but I’m researching pitches to LGTBQI publications as well.
Activity 1.2: Photo essay story angle
My idea to document her journey from My little girl to Baby Gay started when we attended her first local pride day in November at Parramatta Riverside Park, and when i knew we were doing Media and documentary for first trimester, i slowly began over the summer holidays to think about how i could make a cohesive story out of this life event. Other thoughts had been to do a day at Hospital with her as she has chemotherapy for Crohns Disease and Rheumatoid arthritis every 8 weeks for the last 3 years, she was diagnosed at 9 years old with Severe fistulating Crohns and gets ulcers from her mouth to her anus through her entire GI tract. The rheumatoid was diagnosed as an additional Auto Immune disease late last year, around the time she came out as Pansexual. Her cousin also has Crohns and Cystic Fibrosis is being investigated for her. Auto Immune diseases often come in multiple disorders, but i wanted something uplifting and colorful that represents my daughter, shes not a disease or a disability or a sexuality she was Simply BORN THIS WAY which is the title I’m working with.
Parramatta Pride Fair Day 10th October 2019 Coming out Day
Activity 1.3: Process blog – Reflections
My thoughts so far…..how do i distill over 900 images so far into a 10-25 image photo essay……what is my exact narrative..do i include hospital photos too?
After tossing ideas around in class i felt somewhat clearer that my idea was a great one but i was still left with the dilemma of how to tell her story. That’s my goal over the next 12 weeks… to tell Stella’s story and have it be authentic to her and how she was BORN THIS WAY!
Danielle Rose Photography 